HEALTH Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said changes dictated by the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law are an opportunity for private firms to innovate their offerings and drive down costs.

At the Health Leadership Summit to discuss “The Big Shifts of the UHC” held at Shangri-La at The Fort yesterday, Mr. Duque said the government needs the private sector to play a major role when UHC launches next year.

“The UHC Act provides more opportunities for the private sector to expand their market reach, but at the same time we challenge their creativity in developing high-value enhancing solutions,” he said.

“For example, shifting investment to primary care is expected with PhilHealth paying for comprehensive primary care benefit package. The direction to contract health care provider networks raises the need for solutions or technologies that can help providers successfully achieve financial, clinical and management integration.”

Republic Act No. 11223 or the UHC Law puts heavy emphasis on primary care. The law defines primary care as the initial contact with care services before referral to other health care providers.

The health care system that the law wants to build focuses on forming a network of health care providers, with the goal of strengthening integration across various health service needs.

Mr. Duque said the opportunity for health care businesses is to explore other businesses such as health technology.

“The institutionalization of the health technology assessment process is the (driver) of cost-effective jobs and devices, and procedures for public funding are expected to foster innovation and improve market competitiveness,” Mr. Duque said.

Ayala Corp.’s health care unit Ayala Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (AC Health) also sees major potential in growing its business due to UHC.

“I think overall it’s made us more excited and it made us bolder. We’re looking to invest in more clinics, not just FamilyDoc but other types of clinics as well,” AC Health President and Chief Executive Officer Paolo Maximo F. Borromeo told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the forum.

“There are discussions about how we could work with local government units in terms of implementing service delivery networks, embedding FamilyDoc clinics for instance in their LGUs…,” he added.

During the forum, Michael L. Tan, whose background is in medical anthropology, emphasized the importance of looking at Filipino attitudes to health care to identify how to best implement UHC. Among these are the need to be accompanied during consultations, choosing specialists over general practitioners, and skipping basic individual preventive care measures.

He said the government must carefully study how to best reach out to Filipinos to create a universal health care system that will succeed. — Denise A. Valdez

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